Wednesday, 23 February 2011

Reuters wrong about EU´s future dependence on Russian gas

Ahead of Russian dictator Putin´svisit to Brussels, Reuters has cabled out a piece by one of their Moscow correspondents, Darya Korsunskaya. According to Ms. Korsunskaya "TheEuropean Union's $16 trillion economy dwarfs Russia's $1.5 trillion economy but Russia supplies 23 percent of the European Union's gas needs and the EU dependence on imports is likely to rise in the coming decades".

This is, of course, what what the Russians would like to believe, but in reality Europe is going to be less dependent on Russian energy. Ms. Korsunskaya completely "forgot" to mention the ongoing shale gas revolution, which e.g. will make Poland an energy exporter. “In ten-fifteen years Poland has a chance to become second Norway", says Poland´s foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski. And shale gas can be extracted in several other European countries as well.

Over the past two years, the Polish Environment Ministry has issued around 60 licenses for shale gas exploration in Poland, mainly to the U.S. companies, including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Energy Lane.